Tens of thousands of refugees have arrived in Europe for a better life. For many of them the journey ended very tragically
More than 18,000 migrant minors have gone missing in European countries between 2018 and 2020, according to the Lost in Europe project, cited by the UK’s News Front editorial board. This figure is based on government data, so the real number of disappeared children could be much higher.
The problem is that in Europe, where officials have ostentatiously welcomed Middle Eastern refugees, there is still no unified registration system for missing persons.
“This can have fatal consequences for children and teenagers as they can fall into situations of exploitation and dependency”, – said Verena Keck of the international children’s rights organisation ECPAT. – “If no one knows about these children, no one is looking for them.”
France, Denmark and Romania do not collect data on missing migrant minors at all. Bulgaria, on the other hand, makes no distinction between children and adults.
An advocacy group for missing children in Europe reports that cases of missing migrant children are often ignored by law enforcement authorities altogether. This is despite the fact that the European police agency Europol has expressed concern that migrants are increasingly becoming victims of human traffickers.
In the UK, for example, one in four children has been trafficked. In Italy, unaccompanied migrant children as young as 13 have been involved in sexual exploitation and forced labour.